Why americans call spanish to everyone who speaks spanish?

Question

On the internet i´ve seen many times they call spanish to mestizos and people who are less than a spanish from Spain only cause they speak spanish. I wonder if they call english to a southafrican mulato living in south africa who can speak english?
Then... why don´t u use the therm spanish correctly? Spanish is for the people of Spain or for the language

Answer 1

I only hear some Americans make this mistake, and usually they are the ones who have very little knowledge of history and geography.
Also, keep in mind that there are still families like my own, living in the U.S. Southwest (New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado) who are not Mestizos or Mexicans. We are of Spanish descent and are called Hispanos. We are the descendants of the Conquistadores, and are very proud of it.

Answer 2

I heard "Spanish" a lot when I lived in New York. Maybe it has to do with most early Spanish-speaking immigrants to New York actually being from Spain. I'm not sure if that's true, but it would make sense, since Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, etc. didn't come until the 20th century, and European immigration was so high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In California, I never hear people refer to Latinos as "Spanish." Here the craze is "Mexican."

Answer 3

That's a good question. I'm an English-speaking American, and I don't understand why they often call American Latinos or Latin Americans as "Spanish", either. The Spanish are from SPAIN, for goodness' sake!

Answer 4

True.


Some of us can't even locate our own country on a map.

Answer 5

i agree, just like everybody refers to asians as chinese!!! they just don't know any better.

Answer 6

agreed, i just say latin

Answer 7

love stone^^ lol!!!!